The Mason City Globe Gazette says (http://bit.ly/1IfuBNI ) that the lawsuit involves Soy Energy, a Mason City biodiesel plant.

According to court documents, a tank in the plant exploded and caused damage to the building and its contents.

SE Liquidating Trust, a successor in interest to Soy Energy, filed a lawsuit against Omaha-based CJS Group Inc. earlier this year, claiming a breach of contract, negligence and indemnification.

Court documents say Soy Energy contracted with Ball Industrial Services to work on modifications for its existing biodiesel plant. Ball Industrial Services then hired CJS Group to serve as an engineering consultant.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports (http://bit.ly/1IfypOP ) that Dirt Divas, a local women’s soft-trail running group, is organizing the Take Back the Trails event on Wednesday at George Wyth State Park.

Authorities say a Waterloo woman was forced into a wooded area on Tuesday and sexually assaulted while she was running on a trail at the park. The perpetrator remains at large.

The run, bike and hike event starts at 6 p.m. at the park’s Canfield Shelter. Participants will hit the trails around the campground area. They’re asked to wear teal, the color of sexual assault awareness, and organizers will have teal ribbons available.

Investigators say Gardial failed to negotiate a curve while riding northbound with other motorcyclists. Gardial was ejected from the motorcycle, which continued on the roadway before hitting another vehicle. No other injuries were reported.

Authorities say the crash remains under investigation, but they don’t believe alcohol and speed were contributing factors.

Authorities say the deputies were called to a BP gas station shortly before 7:30 a.m. Sunday on a report that two intoxicated males were harassing the store’s clerk.

Authorities say 22-year-old Matthew Hinton of Richton, Mississippi, began to fight when a deputy tried to arrest him, and the deputy broke an arm when the two fell into a wall. They say Hinton fled and was subdued by two other deputies who suffered abrasions during a second struggle.

Hinton was charged with three counts of interference with official acts causing serious injuries. He also faces a driving under the influence charge in Mississippi. Online court records did not list an attorney.

District Court Judge James Drew issued the order for 21-year-old Stephanie Fatland of Mason City during a sentencing hearing in Floyd County District Court. Authorities say Fatland admitted to shaking her 5-month-old son when he would not stop crying.

Rita Bettis, legal director of the ACLU of Iowa, says reproductive freedoms and the freedom to procreate are constitutional rights.

Drake University Law Professor Robert Rigg says the ruling may reflect the court’s desire to protect any additional children, but there are other legal ways to do so.

The Des Moines Register reports (http://dmreg.co/1OIy2Ah ) the group One Iowa hosted its first “Gay & Gray” Iowa Senior Summit on Saturday in Des Moines.

Donna Red Wing, the group’s executive director, says she has heard from Iowa residents who fear they’ll live out their days in a senior housing facility where they’ll face discrimination. She says one elderly man at a facility in southeastern Iowa has stayed in the closet because staff members use homophobic remarks.

Barbara Satin, a transgender activist, says fewer than 500 housing spaces in the United States are oriented toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents.

In order to relocate the Egloff House to East State Street, changes are being made to the bridge north of the intersection of 4th Street NE and North Carolina Avenue. That will force Mason City Public Transit’s Northeast bus to take a detour.

The bus will leave the Transit Station and head east on 1st Street NW, turning north onto North Pennsylvania, east onto 13th Street NE, south on North Carolina and finally east on 9th Street NE before resuming its normal route to NIACC. On its return trip, the Northeast bus will again detour north onto North Carolina, west on 12th Street NE, south on North Pennsylvania and then west on 1st Street NE back to the Transit Station in Central Park.

The North Central bus will also be following its normal route on North Pennsylvania, so passengers are asked to check the LED signs on the bus carefully to make sure they’re boarding the correct one.

This detour will begin Monday and is expected to last through August 21.

]]>http://kimt.com/2015/08/02/mason-city-bus-detour-starts-monday/feed/0Sun, 02 Aug 2015 15:18:23 +0000MASON CITY PUBLIC TRANSITkimtmikebungebus detourAfter rough budget, is Iowa Capitol getting more combative?http://kimt.com/ap/after-rough-budget-is-iowa-capitol-getting-more-combative/
http://kimt.com/ap/after-rough-budget-is-iowa-capitol-getting-more-combative/#commentsSun, 02 Aug 2015 09:18:07 +0000http://kimt.com/ap/after-rough-budget-is-iowa-capitol-getting-more-combative/]]>DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa elected officials pride themselves on working in a politically divided government that still gets things done. But after a combative budget process, capped with several vetoes by Gov. Terry Branstad, some are questioning how well the system is working.

Simply put, is Iowa politics becoming more like Washington?

Branstad has spent weeks defending his decision to veto several budget compromises negotiated by the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-majority House. The governor says he’s not concerned about his relationships with lawmakers or ability to get legislation passed in the future.

Branstad says officials dealt with worse situations during the farm crisis of the 1980s.

Authorities say Nicholas Toles was transferred to work release after his parole on a robbery conviction was revoked last month. The Iowa Department of Corrections says in a written release that Toles was absence from the facility on Friday.

Those with information on Toles’ whereabouts are asked to contact the Waterloo Police Department or Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department.

Police say Rainey was a night manager at Domino’s Pizza, where he was responsible for making night deposits. Police say that on 22 occasions from January through March, Rainey entered the deposit amount into the store computer, but never dropped the money at the bank. He is accused of stealing $20,276 in cash.

]]>http://kimt.com/ap/ex-pizza-store-manager-charged-with-stealing-thousands/feed/0Sun, 02 Aug 2015 16:24:16 +0000linamandajoyalBurlington police still looking for killer in 1969 slayinghttp://kimt.com/ap/burlington-police-still-looking-for-killer-in-1969-slaying/
http://kimt.com/ap/burlington-police-still-looking-for-killer-in-1969-slaying/#commentsSat, 01 Aug 2015 22:18:07 +0000http://kimt.com/ap/burlington-police-still-looking-for-killer-in-1969-slaying/]]>BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Police in Burlington have not given up on solving who raped and killed 48-year-old Dorothy Miller — even though the crime happened nearly half a century ago.

Dorothy Miller’s bound body was found Aug. 19, 1969, in a vacant two-story house in central Burlington. Her unsolved killing is Burlington’s oldest cold case.

Lt. Jeff Klein, commander of Burlington’s criminal investigation division, tells The Hawk Eye (http://bit.ly/1IfBoH2) that every Burlington police officer who becomes a detective is familiar with the case. Klein says when detectives return from training, “we hand them the Dorothy Miller file and ask them to review it to see if we have missed anything.”

Police had a number of leads at the time of the killing, including the brick used to bludgeon her.

The Sioux City Journal reports (http://bit.ly/1Ifvxl4 ) that the Hard Rock took in $70 million in gambling revenue in its first 11 months through June 30, the end of the casino’s fiscal year. Original projections estimated $90.5 million in the first year of operations, and the first full year’s revenue looks to come in lower than that.

But the 11-month total already exceeds the all-time annual high of $61 million set in 2012 by the Argosy riverboat casino, which closed when the downtown Hard Rock opened.

Hard Rock’s top month for the year was $7.165 million, collected during its opening month last August.

]]>http://kimt.com/ap/sioux-city-hard-rock-casino-revenue-behind-projections/feed/0Sun, 02 Aug 2015 15:48:07 +0000linamandajoyalMore than 500 Iowa inmates moved to new Fort Madison prisonhttp://kimt.com/ap/more-than-500-iowa-inmates-moved-to-new-fort-madison-prison/
http://kimt.com/ap/more-than-500-iowa-inmates-moved-to-new-fort-madison-prison/#commentsSat, 01 Aug 2015 20:58:06 +0000http://kimt.com/ap/more-than-500-iowa-inmates-moved-to-new-fort-madison-prison/]]>FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) — More than 500 Iowa inmates have been moved to a new maximum security prison in Fort Madison, following a litany of troubles that pushed back the move-in day by more than a year.

An Iowa Department of Corrections news release says it took about five hours Saturday to move the 507 inmates from the old prison to the new one two miles down the road.

The new $166 million prison was supposed to open in March 2014. But it had sat empty for more than a year while officials scrambled to fix a number of problems, including a flawed heating and cooling system, smoke evacuation system and air ventilation system.

The Mason City Globe Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/1Ift6iC ) that enrollment numbers last school year show the Clear Lake school district had 136 students receiving special education services, while Mason City had 508.

Renee Denny, the special education coordinator at Garner-Hayfield-Ventura High School, says she was shocked to only receive three resumes this summer for a special education position. The school filled the position internally with a teacher switching from general to special education.

Pat Carlson, director of undergraduate education at Iowa State University’s School of Education, says the shortage is nothing new. She says there’s been a shortage of special education teachers statewide for at least three decades.

On Friday, police told the Quad-City Times (http://bit.ly/1IfA8nr ) that 28-year-old Byron Mayeux, of Milan, died in the Wednesday accident.

Investigators say Mayeux was placing branches in the wood chipper while working for Milan-based Acadian Tree Service outside of a house in Davenport when he was somehow pulled into the chipper and killed.

The investigation into the accident has been turned over to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.